After Cameron formally resigns, the 59-year-old May will later visit the palace, where the queen will ask her to form a new government.
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May’s spokesman said she had emphasised in her calls, which also included Irish premier Enda Kenny, that she would implement the referendum decision.
May’s administration represents a new pillar in female political leadership around the world – a landscape anchored by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Croatian Prime Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – all of whom were ranked in the top 50 of Forbes’ 2016 list of the world’s 100 most powerful women.
The outcome of the UK vote “has created a new situation which the United Kingdom and the European Union will have to address soon”, Juncker said in a letter to May published on his Twitter account.
Other top officials who lost their jobs Thursday were education secretary Nicky Morgan, culture secretary John Whittingdale and Oliver Letwin, who was to have served as a point person in Brexit talks.
May emerged as the prime minister designate on Monday after her only rival, Andrea Leadsom, withdrew from the Conservative party leadership race triggered by the UK’s referendum last month in favour of Brexit.
She then entered Number 10 and began a reshuffle which started with Osborne being told he would not be a part of the new government and was being replaced by former Secretary of State Philip Hammond. May committed to handing the role to a pro-Brexit lawmaker during her push for the premiership after she put aside her own misgivings to side with staying in the bloc.
Fox will be in charge of forging new global trade deals after Britain voted to leave the European Union. She rewarded Johnson with the plum job of foreign secretary. The two had clashed over policing in London while Johnson was serving as mayor.
Britons chose Brexit despite a barrage of warnings that severing European Union ties would create huge uncertainty and plunge the economy into recession.
Along with overseeing European Union negotiations, May will need to unite a nation still deeply divided over a referendum where 52% voted Leave, and 48% voted Remain.
The flamboyant and ever-undiplomatic Johnson, however, was awarded the plum job of Foreign Secretary late Wednesday – a move that spawned head-scratching worldwide given his past critical comments about President Obama, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and many others.
She is the first female leader of that country since the “Iron Lady” – Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving prime minister in the 20th century, who held the premiership from 1979 to 1990. She will also attempt to unite a fractured nation in which many, on the evidence of the referendum, feel angry with the political elite and left behind by the forces of globalization. She becomes the 13th prime minister of the Queen’s reign.
May departed from typical Conservative rhetoric and vowed to fight against the “burning injustice” that she said has worked against minorities and women.
Acknowledging the struggles faced by many, May declared: “The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours”.
“If you’re from an ordinary working-class family, life is much harder than many people in Westminster realise”, Mrs May said.
She spoke of the “precious bond” between the nations of the United Kingdom, implicit recognition of the tensions generated by the referendum in which England and Wales chose to quit the European Union, but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay, raising the possibility of a new Scottish vote on independence. Brexit! When do we want it?
Schulz said the cabinet, like the one run by May’s predecessor David Cameron, is based on solving internal splits in the ruling centre-right Conservative Party rather than promoting the national interest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready for “constructive dialogue” with Britain’s new premier, while White House spokesman Josh Earnest said United States officials who had worked with May “found her to be quite effective”.
“And as we leave for the last time, my only wish is continued success for this great country that I love so very much”.
When David Cameron departed Downing Street he completed a hat-trick of consecutive Conservative Prime Ministers to have been fatally wounded by divisions over Britain’s relationship with the continent.
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Hammond acknowledged that investment in Britain had been shaken since the referendum result.
